As I kept going to my office, I heard someone on his cell phone talking about some kind of plane crash in New York. I believe the second plane had hit even before I got to work. My colleagues and I watched the first tower fall on live TV: I remember the television reporter saying that a cloud of dust had suddenly blocked his view of the south tower, and one of my colleagues said, “It’s gone.”

We had an editorial meeting on how to cover the attack before the second tower fell. I remember saying, panicked, “Do you think they aren’t having their own meeting to plan their next attack, right now?” (I was wrong). By 1:30 that afternoon, I was on the phone to a ex-CIA source of mine. His voice shook audibly: “I don’t understand…I don’t think there’s any excuse for missing this.”